Together, Again & Always
by Singerdiva01
Summary: Missing scene from Blood on The Scales, Season 4. After their emotional reunion, Bill escorts Laura back to their quarters, expecting her to collapse under the weight of the events during the mutiny. Instead, President Roslin is back, more fierce than ever, and she wants her Admiral by her side.


As Laura descended down the steps from the flight deck, Bill took a step forward to support her but stopped when he realized that, for the first time in months, she didn't seem to need the help. Her back was ramrod straight and he couldn't detect even a trace of the tremors that had become more frequent as the diloxan treatments took their toll on her body.

As she reached the final step, she seemed to notice it too. She nodded her head sharply in what he assumed was satisfaction and her hand went to her hip in the power pose he'd thought long lost as she turned to continue walking toward the center of the ship. The woman who came off that Raptor was President Roslin, in control of her body and her job once again.

She stopped, hand still on her hip, when she saw Bill standing in between her and her intended path. Her eyes went wide in surprise and a sob escaped from her lips. He took her in for a long moment and moved to stand in front of her. She continued to cry as she held him by the shoulders, taking in his presence and assuring herself that he was indeed alive. She patted him proudly on the shoulder before crashing into his embrace. He ran one hand through her hair and drew gentle circles on her back with the other, assuring himself that she was real and intact.

Her sobs slowed and Bill could tell she was drawing heavily on reserves of her famous self-control to slow her breathing and stand without his support. When she indicated with her body that she was ready, he took her arm and they walked wordlessly out of the room.

As they walked slowly through the halls to his quarters, she retained the strong, presidential resolve he'd noticed as she stepped onto the ship. Passing crew members paused to acknowledge their two leaders. Some saluted the Admiral. Others bowed their heads in respect to the President. The mood in the corridors was grim but carried an undercurrent of renewed resolve now that the man and the woman who'd again saved the fleet from certain catastrophe were back on board, together and in charge.

The Admiral opened the hatch to his quarters and let go of the president's arm as he motioned her inside ahead of him, hand resting comfortably on her lower back. Once the door was firmly closed behind them, she turned quickly and propelled her body into his chest, face nestled in his uniform and arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders.

He waited for the tears to come but they didn't. Instead, she simply held that position, unmoving. He waited for what seemed like minutes before saying, lightly, "Laura, darling, I think there are probably more comfortable places in this room to sleep than on me."

He felt her body begin to tremble and she began to make a sound he initially took for sobbing. As he opened his mouth to comfort her, she leaned her head back to look at him and he realized she was laughing.

Alright, he thought, she's hysterical. Probably in shock. He looked at her with concern, trying to judge what to do.

She saw the look and let out one more harsh laugh. "It's alright, Bill, I haven't gone round the bend." She released him and moved toward the couch.

He moved to follow, still wondering at her strange reaction. "Would you like to let me in on what's funny, then?"

"The absurdity. We survive the apocalypse, the cylons, near starvation, Baltar and then we almost got taken out by your own men and my fraking vice president."

Despite himself, despite the events of the day, he let out a laugh as well as he joined her on the couch.

"Yes, we are quite the pair," he said with a sad sigh.

She turned and took his chin in her hand. "We are quite the pair, Bill. I knew that if there was a single breath left in your body you would take back this ship."

He was quiet for a moment. "They told you I was dead, didn't they?"

She dropped her hand and nodded. "Zarek did. Fracking Zarek."

He laughed again, in spite of himself. "I kinda figured when I heard you on the wireless, threatening to blow my ship out of the sky."

She smiled at him. "I'll admit, I gave up hope then. I knew my life was over too. I knew I was going to die alone and I was going to make damn sure the worthless bastards who killed you were dead too." Her voice broke at the end of the sentence, prompting him to envelop her in another hug.

"You did great, Laura. You gave me the time I needed. I'm not going anywhere and you are never, ever going to die alone."

She pulled back and looked into his eyes. "When I heard your voice on that transmission, it was like I'd been given a whole new chance at life." She let out what sounded like a snort. "Sort of ironic under the circumstances."

Bill winced. He'd been making an effort to deal better with the ever more frequent mentions of her impending death. She needed to talk about it and he, as much as it killed him inside, needed to face it for her sake. The last thing he wanted was for her to die worrying about how he would live on.

Her voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Alright, Admiral. You have traitors to deal with and a crew to put back together. I want them dead, Bill. They were going to shoot you like a dog and they deserve the same fate. Technically, you can do whatever you like with Gaeta as that's a military decision. Zarek, on the other hand, is a political one and I'm signing an order of execution. I want it done before I address the press and I'd like for you to be there with me when I do."

Bill was taken aback. Laura had all but given up her role as president, letting Lee take the reigns as she focused on her cancer treatments and their budding relationship.

He raised an eyebrow. "I guess this is what you meant this morning, Madam President, when you said you weren't getting pulled back in?"

She looked down at her hands, considering his words. He noticed that they were still, free of the tremors he'd grown used to ignoring.

"Bill, I realized today that this has always been about us. I wish we'd figured out the "us" us sooner but there's nothing we can do about that. But the human race has survived thus far because we willed it to, side by side. I'm not dead yet and this fleet, today especially, needs Admiral William Adama and President Laura Roslin, together."

Tears welled up in his eyes. Something about thinking she might have continue on her own had returned to her the resolve he thought was gone forever.

"Alright, President Roslin. But there's something you should know before you jump back in." He paused, hating to be the bearer of news that was sure to cause her pain. With a long sigh, he continued. "Zarek tried to take his little mutiny to the Quorum for a vote. In what I think was the first time in history, they made a unanimous decision to stand with their president."

He paused as she leaned forward. "Oh, Gods, Bill. Go on."

"He had them shot."

Her hand went to her mouth as a sharp gasp escaped. She turned to face forward, head in her hands. "Oh, Gods. All of them? They're all dead?"

He moved to touch her arm but her hand shot up, warning him not to touch her. They sat in silence as she wiped tears from her face and took deep breaths to compose herself. When she looked up, the tears were gone and she had a look in her eye he'd seen only once before, when she'd ordered him to kill Admiral Cain.

"Go kill him, Bill. That mistake of mine ordered you to be killed and that will be the last mistake _he_ ever makes."

He nodded slowly. "Madam President, I do have to say, dying makes you so...bloody minded."

She shot him a look over her glasses, then removed them as she stood up to move to the desk to start writing her address to the fleet. Without looking at him, she said, almost playfully, "I suppose it would scare you then, Bill, if I asked you to bring me his head? A gift to a dying woman?"

He ignored the comment, allowing her to make light of the heavy task before him because he knew that he'd also want the head of anyone who put her in danger.

As he rose to walk to the door, he turned to look at her, now busy looking over papers on the desk. "Laura, I hate to ask but...how are you feeling?" He'd been fighting back a nagging worry about what toll the strength they had forced out of her would be in terms of stealing precious days, hours, minutes from her already limited time.

She glanced up and he realized she'd already been so lost in her work that she'd forgotten he was still in the room. She flashed him a radiant smile. "I feel better than I have in weeks. And, I would wager, probably better than an old man who I've heard took quite a few punches today."

He looked down, smiling in spite of himself. "Touche, Madam President. Try not to overdo it, ok?"

She looked up and for a moment he thought she was going to lay into him for worrying about her when she felt more alive than she ever thought she would again. Instead, she offered him a precious insight about herself, a gift he'd gotten more often as their bond got stronger.

"I'll lie down before the press conference, Bill. You know, there was a time when I wouldn't listen to you or to Cottle or to anyone. I wanted to take on the world and I thought I could rely only on myself to do it. I did that once and, I found out today, I could do it again if I had to. But seeing as how I don't have to go it alone after all, I find I don't even want to anymore."

She gave him a final, loving smile, perched her glasses back on the tip of her nose, and looked down again at her papers.

He stood staring at her for a moment more. He didn't know what he'd done to deserve it but he'd made it to the end of the world and the strongest, most impressive woman left in it had chosen him to love.


End file.
